4
7.
The British Trade Commission Office is well-housed on the 9th floor of the Bank of America tower block rented at £214,000 pa. The office of the Senior Representative to the Joint Liaison Group (JLG) opened on 1 July 1988 on two floors of the St John's Building. The current rent is £75,000 pa but this is bound to rise considerably on review in June this year.
8.
The Senior Trade Commissioner at present lives in a leased house, but this will be inadequate for the new senior grade Trade Commissioner when he arrives at the end of April. We will therefore search for a new house for him which, ideally, might eventually serve as a future Consul General's Residence. The Senior Representative to the JLG will take up permanent residence in Hong Kong later this year and a search is now also starting for a suitable Residence for him.
9.
There are 25 other Post-rented properties, ranging in rent from £12,000 to £26,000 pa.
10.
We face the significant problem of how best to provide office accommodation for the Consulate General after 1997. Although it will be a sizeable Mission, and space will be needed for an Immigration Office and the British Council, the total office requirement is not large in the Hong Kong context. At present, FCO own no property in Hong Kong. Co-ordination and development of a strategy is proving complex, and a number of options are being considered, ranging from a co-located "Britannia House" to three dispersed leaseholds. Given that the property market is booming, the costs of a new building threaten to be well beyond our means. We are in touch with the Hong Kong Government about possible sites and we shall shortly be appointing independent professional advisers.
[
Overseas Estate Department
March 1989
SC3ASS
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.